090818 - Back to Basics and Re-Finding our Standards

Before we get to the WOD I want to address a trend that I have noticed growing that is going to become a bit of a monster if not addressed. We have been focusing too much as of late on competition with the person next to us instead of with ourselves. As a result our standards have been flying out the window in order to get a faster time. This is completely defeating the purpose of everyone being here. The 2 rules that I have constantly preached and all of you should be tired of hearing is that both form/technique/quality of movement and working towards rx'd for workouts both come before your focus on a really fast time. This has been getting lost along the way. Cheating your range of motion to get a faster time is the same as taking a really light weight to get a fast time. You are not doing the same workout that the person next to you is doing who takes the challenging weight or is using the full range of motion and therefore your time has little to no value when being compared to someone who did everything right. We are going to refocus on QUALITY OF MOVEMENT. This means doing exercises through a full range of motion and doing those exercises correctly.
The second trend that I see happening is a lack of involvement from everyone in their own progress. How many of you know your Fran, Helen, Cindy, CrossFit Total, etc. scores? Even better, how many of you right now are saying, "What's Fran or Helen, or Cindy?" This is an absolute travesty. These are your benchmarks and are clear trackers for your progress not to mention a major part of the fitness culture that you are all involved in! Everyone of you should know what your score is for these workouts (all of you have done them at least once and some as many as 3-4 times). I cannot stress enough the importance of being a part of your own progress. Don't just come in and mindlessly go through the WODs I put on the whiteboards take an active role and interest in what is up there. If you are unsure of what some of the movements are ask me but please not every time that movement appears! There are some amazing resources including videos of people performing the different exercises on the CrossFit.com page which I have conveniently posted a link to in the right hand margin. Go and take a look at them!
We are all pretty new to this whole thing as an upstart box and I am equally to blame for all of this. For this I apologize. We are all evolving through this process and I vow to continually try to improve myself as a trainer. As we evolve there will be some growing pains, this is natural and to be expected. As long as we all continue to work as hard as we are I have no doubt in my mind that we will all be successful.
It seems we are not the only ones having some of these problems. I want to give a huge thanks to CrossFit Vancouver for their Sunday, august, 16th post titled The Super Seven. It showed me that even a well established CrossFit Box with an absolutely amazing program and staff could be facing some similar problems as a little upstart like us and that it was on me as a trainer to remedy these problems.
All of you guys are amazing people and there is absolutely no way any of us should settle for anything less than amazing, standards and all.
Now enough of this soap box bullshit lets get down to business!

WOD - "Fran"
Rounds of 21-15-9 of:
Thrusters (95/65)
Pull-ups


Post your times and comments!